Good morning. While working on Grand Canyon V and having to wait for paint drying time, a painting I did in 2015 popped into my mind. At the time I posted it I was rather pleased with it thinking it was finished. You know what they say about a painting never being finished unless it is sold and removed from the studio. Well, in this case that is true. I made changes to the painting that I did two years ago using the lessons I have learned within those two years. You see, I have learned how to make more defined shapes by, usually darkening, but sometimes lightening, the edges of the lines created by the pallet knife with a fine brush and doing the scrubbling method Flemish renaissance artists used. There are three posts. One shows the painting I thought I had finished. The second shows the first step, and the third shows the now finished painting. I think. Maybe those mountains need some work.

Owen, this is good! One critique I would make ( and you remember what I said about telling me to shut up and mind my own business) is the way those clouds come to a sudden stop on the left side of the painting. Something disconcerting about it. Maybe if they continued all the way to the end with breaks in them showing sky coming through. Maybe it's just me. But this is really good.

Thank you for your critique Joseph. Sometimes a storm can move in so fast and the sky is so large in New Mexico that the cloud front can look like a wall advancing into a perfectly blue sky. I tried to capture that movement. The other thing is that Santa Fe is 7,000 feet above sea level. Middle clouds are typically around 9,000 to 16,000 feet here. Some would dispute that, but it is almost like looking directly at them instead of up at them. The Pecos wilderness is just east of Santa Fe around 50 miles. Santa Fe is on the backside of the mountain chain in the middle of the painting. Santa Fe Baldy is a little over 12,000 feet putting these clouds in the 14,000 foot range. Pecos, NM is about the same elevation as Santa Fe, maybe a little higher. One of the most remarkable topological views, at least to me, are the Pecos river bluffs. You are actually looking at old sea beds eons old. These are the inspirations for this painting. I can live with the disconcerting element you identify. I think the unsettled feeling enhances an otherwise sedate scene.